{"id":210849,"date":"2025-04-08T06:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T11:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/spinning-into-antibiotic-resistance-the-flagellas-hidden-role"},"modified":"2025-04-08T06:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T11:14:14","slug":"spinning-into-antibiotic-resistance-the-flagellas-hidden-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/spinning-into-antibiotic-resistance-the-flagellas-hidden-role","title":{"rendered":"Spinning into antibiotic resistance: The flagella\u2019s hidden role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/spinning-into-antibiotic-resistance-the-flagellas-hidden-role.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new study from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sheds light on how bacterial motion influences the spread of antibiotic resistance. Led by Professor Sigal Ben-Yehuda and Professor Ilan Rosenshine from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, the research uncovers a direct connection between the rotation of bacterial flagella\u2014structures used for movement\u2014and the activation of genes that enable bacteria to transfer DNA to one another.<\/p>\n<p>This process, known as bacterial conjugation, is a key mechanism by which genetic traits, particularly antibiotic resistance, are shared among bacterial populations. While conjugation has traditionally been associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/bacteria\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">bacteria<\/a> attaching to solid surfaces, the team investigated pLS20, a widespread conjugative plasmid in Bacilli species, which behaves differently. The study shows that in liquid environments, where bacteria rely on movement to navigate, the rotation of flagella acts as a mechanical signal that turns on a set of genes required for DNA transfer.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers discovered that this signal triggers gene expression in a specific subset of donor cells, which then form clusters with recipient bacteria. These multicellular clusters bring the two types of cells into close contact, facilitating the transfer of genetic material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sheds light on how bacterial motion influences the spread of antibiotic resistance. Led by Professor Sigal Ben-Yehuda and Professor Ilan Rosenshine from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, the research uncovers a direct connection between the rotation of bacterial flagella\u2014structures [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}